Chapter 2 - The Last Drink Elise Handed Her
Three nights earlier, Audrey had still believed her marriage was merely strained.
Grant had been distracted for months.
Always looking at financial spreadsheets.
Taking calls in hallways.
Sleeping badly.
His commercial insurance brokerage had lost several major clients, but whenever Audrey asked how serious things were, he smiled and said:
“Temporary cash-flow problem.”
Elise had been staying with them after separating from her own husband.
That arrangement was supposed to last three weeks.
It became four months.
Audrey loved her sister.
But Elise had always had a way of entering another person’s crisis and slowly becoming central to it.
She cooked.
Organized appointments.
Listened to Grant complain.
Listened to Audrey complain about Grant.
Eventually she knew too much about both sides of the marriage.
The night everything happened, the three of them attended a private hotel fundraiser in Charleston.
At 10:10 p.m., Audrey told Grant she wanted to leave.
“You promised we wouldn’t stay late.”
Grant barely looked away from the donor he was speaking to.
“Twenty more minutes.”
“You said that forty minutes ago.”
Elise appeared beside Audrey.
“I’ll sit with her.”
Audrey frowned.
“I don’t need supervision.”
Elise smiled.
“Then consider it company.”
They walked into the quieter hotel lounge.
Audrey ordered the bourbon cocktail she usually drank.
Then her phone rang.
A client.
She stepped into the corridor for less than two minutes.
When she returned, the drink was already waiting.
Elise pushed it toward her.
“You look miserable.”
“Very observant.”
“To surviving family.”
Audrey almost laughed at the strange toast.
Later she would replay it repeatedly.
At the time, she drank.
The cocktail tasted wrong.
More bitter than usual.
She grimaced.
“What did they put in this?”
“Probably the orange bitters.”
“It’s awful.”
“Then stop after one.”
Audrey drank less than half.
Within fifteen minutes, her limbs became impossibly heavy.
Her vision narrowed.
“Elise…”
“What?”
“I don’t feel right.”
“You’re exhausted.”
“No.”
Audrey attempted to stand.
The room tilted.
Elise caught her.
Then Audrey heard Grant behind her.
Not surprised.
Not frightened.
His first words were:
“Is she ready?”
Elise answered:
“Give it another minute.”
That sentence would return while Audrey lay in the casket.
May you like
At the hotel, she had been too drugged to understand it.
Inside the satin-lined darkness, it became the first piece of truth her mind managed to recover.
